Physical intrusion is a major threat for many types of sites and facilities. Government, commercial, public and even private sites are threatened by active shooters, burglars, vandalisms and the like. In order to secure the facility and its surroundings, an indoor and/or outdoor security system is often employed. The security system generally comprises sensors capable of scanning or observing the facility and surrounding area. Those sensing devices are positioned at different locations throughout the facility, in order to facilitate monitoring of the site. Some of the devices are sensors capable of detecting any intrusion into the facility. Such detection sensors may be motion detectors, break-in sensors, video analytics mechanisms, or the like. Other imaging devices are used for visual monitoring and recording of the activity within the facility. Those imaging devices are capable of capturing detailed images from the site and usually format it as video signals. Such devices may be optical or thermal cameras or any other type of imaging device. The image data and other sensed data including detection alerts are transmitted to a computerized work-station of a control center, equipped with processing and display means and operated by a member of the control center staff (hereinafter “operator”). Such control center may be established and operated either on site or remotely. The staffing of the control center may be based on employees of the site, or through outsourcing to a monitoring company, employing operators that service multiple sites.
The work station, receiving detection alert data, as a result of special events being detected or reported, alerts the operator, to draw his attention and drive him to react to the event. Imaging data and video signals received from imaging devices are displayed by the work station, to allow the operator to assess the level of threat imposed on the protected site, either from such reported or detected event or continuously, through constant monitoring. Based on this visual assessment, the operator may be able to decide on how to further act as a response to the event.
The work station controls imaging devices, equipped with pan, tilt and zoom mechanisms and slews them to the location of the detected object that initiated the event or to preset locations within the monitored site, or to locations, requested by the user. Imaging video signals from such controlled imaging devices as well as from fixed imaging devices, lacking the pan, tilt and zoom controllability, are switched and routed to the work station's display to enable the operator to monitor the space within the facility—covered by such imaging devices.
Certain detection devices are able to track a detected object by further updating the location information of the detected object as it maneuvers within the monitored area, subject to the tracking device's capabilities. Such continuous tracking, enables the work station to update and retransmit further commands to an imaging device to allow continuous visual tracking of the moving object. This grants the operator with enough time for reliable assessment of the threat imposed on the protected site by detected movement within or around the site.
In order to facilitate these roles of the operator, the work station usually consists of two types of display; a geographical display and one or more visual displays. The geographical display enables overall situational awareness by reflecting the locations of the detected activities, of the security system's deployed devices and of other objects within the secured facility or area in real time. The visual display, on the other hand, is usually a video based focused display of the detected threats or requested locations, which allows the operator to assess the nature and intents of observed threats.
In case the operator assesses a detected activity as a potentially threatening intrusion, that needs to be intercepted, his reaction may be to alert security personnel on call (hereinafter “response team”) and have them dispatched to the detected event's location. But if the detected event is assessed as an innocent routine activity, the operator may decide to disregard the event and return back to his routine activity. The alerted security response team is notified concerning the whereabouts of the intruder, and work in unison in response to control center initiated advice and on-going directions in order to intercept and apprehend the intruder. Other law enforcement personnel from external agencies may also be contacted in order to provide further assistance.
In order to be effective during an intrusion event, that may occur at any moment, the control center has to be continuously manned, dramatically adding to its operational costs. An additional disadvantage of employing a manned control center is that a control center operator has to continuously mediate verbally describe the information regarding the situation to each security response professional (hereinafter “guard”) in order to coordinate their movement during an interception operation, which is an evolving event. The remote mediation of information to each guard while commanding operation of the surveillance devices is time consuming, and may be subject to error if the operator is not fully alert and focused. In cases of outsourced monitoring services, on which a single operator services many sites concurrently, his attention is further limited and the operator may not be able to dwell upon the event and direct a full interception operation. In such cases, the guards may be only simplistically dispatched to the facility with insufficient information to act effectively.
At times, image information transmitted to the security response team concerning the whereabouts of the intruder may not be useful due to an obstructed line of sight between a guard or the surveillance device and the instantaneous location of the intruder, for example when the intruder is hidden in a recess or behind a boulder or a wall or other parts of the building within the facility.
During the course of visually tracking a maneuvering intruder, the image information captured by the imaging device may not reflect the updated location of the intruder. This is due to periodical operation of the tracking detection device and to system delays, which accumulate from the time the intruder's location is measured by the tracking detection device, up to the time the imaging device points at that location, in response to system commands.
The operator of a manned control center is burdened with various tasks while required to be alert and react promptly to hazardous events. The operator must instantly comprehend the severity of an evolving in-field event and react effectively in real time. In case the operator is not sufficiently vigilant, or the situation is sufficiently described to the field response, the intruder may not be intercepted in a timely manner to prevent the damage. In such cases of late or ineffective response, the intruder would gain the tactical advantage and the capabilities of the security system may be utilized mainly for after the fact documentation and as a source of evidence.
During his surveillance tasks, the operator's perception, regarding the threat imposed on the protected site, is formed by a human-data-fusion process, combining two different views of the situation in the field. The perspective of the visual display is based on the viewpoint from the imaging device's location as was deployed in the field. On the other hand, the geographical display's perspective is typically that of a “bird-view” from above the field (if 2D display mode is employed). Alternatively, the geographical display's perspective can be freely set by the operator (if 3D display mode is employed). Such differing perspectives of those two views may blur the context of the displays and confuse the operator's orientation. As a result, this delicate process of human-data-fusion, which is highly prone to distractions, may be hindered, decreasing the precision and consistency of the information and guidance communicated to the response personnel.
It would be desirable to allow the guard to be self-assisted by the security system, without being completely dependent on the command center.
It would be desirable to allow the guard to get an immediate full situational awareness image, as captured by the system's devices, while maneuvering within or around the site, without being overwhelmed by a complicated display of such information that may be hard for him to comprehend.
It would be desirable to integrate the techniques and capabilities of an unmanned control center for the benefit of the supervision provided by an operator within a manned control center or other supervisor, to improve the functioning of a guard. In addition, a full situational awareness image being available to a guard, streamlines the coordination between the operator and the guard by refraining the operator from awkwardly guiding the guard through verbal directions.
In case an operator monitoring the secured site within a manned command center, it would be desirable to allow an effective collaboration among the operator and the guards in the field, according to a policy regarding the preferred balance of operator's involvement vs. field guard's autonomy that may be defined by the site's security officers.
In the absence of detection sensors, or at crowded areas, it would be desirable to allow a human scout or an observer of the scene to generate a notification of an event, evolving in the field.
In the absence of other surveillance devices, being able to cover the scene of threatening events or ongoing attacks, it would be desirable to monitor sensors, carried by close-by humans, without any actions required from the close-by humans that may be under attack.
In the absence of any information regarding the location of the intruder, it would be desirable to allow the guard to have a situational awareness that will grant him with tactical advantage and refrain him from physically sweeping every area, space or room within the facility, while being exposed to attacks from the intruder or caught in the intruder's line of fire.
In cases of multiple guards, engaged in an interception operation, it would be desirable to help guards to avoid incidents of friendly crossfire between the guards.
At sites with narrow perimeters, which an intruder may swiftly traverse, it would be desirable to allow quicker responses of the security system to facilitate the prevention of damages.
As the guard is reacting to the intruder trespassing the secured site, the intruder has an inherent tactical advantage over the guard. It would be desirable to grant the guard back with tactical advantage to facilitate and enable the interception of the intruder.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an integrative security system and method for unmanned monitoring of a facility.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an integrative security system and method for securing a facility without need of a control center.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method that allows a mobile user to precisely outline and edit graphical objects by use of a single gesture operation such as with touch screen based user interface of a mobile terminal.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a security system that improves visibility of an intruder during the course of the assessment of the threat and of an interception operation.
It is an additional object of the present invention to improve and support the process of human-data-fusion required for gaining full situational awareness to allow immediate and accurate reaction and guidance.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a security system that helps to direct and assist the response team personnel during the course of an interception operation.
The operator of a manned control center is burdened with various tasks while required to be alert and prompt to react to hazardous events. While an intrusion event is evolving—the operator is required to comprehend the situation in the field and to react effectively in real time. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to integrate techniques and capabilities of the unmanned control center within a manned control center to improve the functioning of the operator.
It is another object of the present invention to enable the system administrator or a security officer to define the surveillance policy that will set the preferred balance between the level of involvement of an operator within a manned command center and the level of autonomy of the guards in the field.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a human scout or a field observer to generate an effective notification of an event, evolving in the field.
It is another object of the present invention to monitor sensors, carried by humans and located close-by to the location of the event, without any action required to be carried out by the humans.
It is another object of the present invention to allow the guard to effectively sweep and scan the facility in order to rapidly locate threats without having to physically go over every area, space or room within the facility and without being caught in the intruder's views or line of fire.
It is another object of the present invention to allow each guard to be aware of any friendly personnel in front of him, to avoid cases of crossfire between the guards.
It is another object of the present invention to enable a quick response to intrusion events at sites with narrow perimeters that will precede the intruder and prevent damages.
It is another object of the present invention to grant the guard with tactical advantage relative to the intruder, by setting the right locations and routes for dispatching the guard that will facilitate and enable the interception of the intruder.
It is another object of the present invention to further grant the guard with tactical advantage by selectively blocking and unblocking paths within the facility through transmitted commands to deployed remotely controllable actuators such as locks and barriers.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.